This resume is outdated as of November 14, 2005, when I started working for Google. I will not update it unless I am on the job market again.

Education

Cambridge, MAMassachusetts Institute of Technology
GPA: 4.7/5Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science; M.Sc., January 2002

Minor: Business Administration at the Sloan School of Management
Relevant classes: Strategic Management for Technology Managers, Financial and Managerial Accounting, High-Tech Startups, Entrepreneurship Lab

University of TorontoToronto, Canada
B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics, May 1999GPA: 4.06/4.2
With High Distinction, Dean's List Scholar

Awards

Mexico, 2003 Best Paper Award, Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence Conference

Netherlands, 1999 World finalist, ACM Programming Competition

Canada, 1997Outstanding Winner, 13th Mathematical Contest in Modeling

  • Led a team in developing a scheme for optimal splitting of meetings into discussion groups to maximize communication. Provided a winning solution in only three days through efficient management of integrating ideas, and of the tasks of research, modeling, and report writing.

India, 1996Gold Medal, International Mathematical Olympiad

  • Perfected a capacity for disciplined analysis rewarded at the topmost mathematical competition. Romanian team ranked 1st worldwide.

NSERC Canadian Fellowship for graduate research (2002, 1999); Presidential Fellowship, MIT (2000); Galois Award in Mathematics, Univ. of Toronto (1998); National Scholarship, Univ. of Toronto (1996-1999)

Experience

Research

Summer 2004
Summer 2003
Summer 2001
Summer 2000

Redmond, WA; Cambridge, UK Research Intern, Microsoft Research
Supervisors: Dr. John Platt, Dr. Hagai Attias, Dr. Eric Brill, Dr. Chris Meek, Dr. Christopher Bishop

  • Introduced a clever real-time image resizing algorithm that preserves detail of text better than existing methods.
  • Developed a machine-learning conversational agent that extracts replies from the Internet in real-time. Highly regarded after deployment on the Microsoft Research intranet.
  • Implemented a modern learning method that speeded up handwritten character recognition.
  • Developed and published a Variational Bayes algorithm for automatically determining the number of components in a mixture of Gaussians model.
09/2002 - 05/2003

Toronto, Canada Visiting Researcher, University of Toronto
Supervisor: Prof. Brendan Frey

  • Collaborated with a biology lab to adapt and deliver statistical algorithms to process microarray data.
09/2001 - 05/2004

Cambridge, MA Research Assistant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Supervisor: Prof. Tommi Jaakola

  • Presented research projects at conferences and seminars, establishing original concepts in the research community, and as a direct result securing an internship with Microsoft Research.
Summer 1999

Redmond, WA Software Design Engineer, Microsoft Research

  • Designed and developed a statistical code-optimization tool trained on sample runs that scored 1% benchmarked speed improvement on MS SQL Server (US patent #6678805).
09/1998 - 05/1999

Research in Language Modeling, University of Toronto, Johns Hopkins University
Supervisors: Prof. Graeme Hirst, Prof. Frederick Jelinek

  • Implemented and published a full decision-tree language model on large vocabulary.
Summer 1998

Baltimore, MD Visiting Scientist, Johns Hopkins University
Supervisor: Prof. Vassilis Digalakis

  • Developed a speaker adaptation technology that increased speech recognition accuracy on new speakers with very limited training data by 1%.
  • Initiated a one-year collaboration between JHU and University of Toronto, completed with a published article.

Consulting

01/2004-05/2004

Cambridge, MA Entrepreneurship Lab, Sloan School of Management

  • Led a team of MBA students in a full-scale management consulting project for developing the growth strategy of a technology client.
  • Represented the team in all interactions with the management of the company.
  • Secured and conducted the critical interviews that determined the recommendation.
  • Engineered and defended a quantified value proposition that sold the strategy to the client.
04/2001 - 05/2003

Toronto, Canada IT Consultant, Mississauga Heritage Foundation

  • Managed the redesigning of the computer database of historical records. Defined the features relevant to the business, proposed an ingenious technical solution, and recommended hiring an intern to implement it.
  • Interviewed, selected, and trained the intern who accomplished the task, elevating the electronic archive to the core of the MHF business.

Teaching

09/2004 - present

Cambridge, MA Teaching Assistant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Supervisor: Prof. Tommi Jaakkola

  • Supporting the graduate machine learning class in all aspects of teaching.
1996 - 1999

Toronto, Canada Teaching Assistant, University of Toronto

  • Lectured mathematics and computer science students with original material.

Technical

Highly skilled in C/C++, Windows .NET (ASP.NET, C#), Perl, Matlab, Java, web technologies, Unix

Activities

Sports (cycling, hiking, sailing), International Film Club, Romanian Students Association